


Sword Art Online Restarted

by Zeldro



Category: Sword Art Online
Genre: F/M, Gen, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-28 00:42:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6307039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeldro/pseuds/Zeldro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the death of Asuna, his girlfriend who sacrificed her life for his, Kirito is given a choice by the creator of SAO himself: He can save Asuna, with the price of restarting SAO and wiping everyone's memory, including his & Asuna's. He goes through with it, and, unlike his previous SAO playthrough, he'll have a much harder time dealing with conflicts, both internal and external.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally made on Fanfiction.net; I usually update my stories there before I update them here. I also post updates about how the latest chapters are going on both FF.net, Twitter, and sometimes Tumblr.

**_Sword Art Online Restarted, Part One_ **

 

**_Kirito’s Point of View_ **

 

**_\- then -_ **

 

“Why me? Why give me the power to decide whether or not these people either stay in the game, or be released? Why make me choose between _her,_ and everybody else? _WHY?!_ ”

 

“Because how far you’ve come in this game only proves to me you can do it again.”

 

“I don’t want to do it again. I simply want Asuna to live, and for everybody to be freed. Why is that too much to ask?”

 

“It’s not that simple. What is it, will you restart SAO in its entirety and save Asuna, or save everybody else?”

 

_I can’t believe he would lay this on me just after I saw her die,_ I think.

 

_But I know what I’m gonna do._

 

“Fine. Put me back in SAO. Put everybody back in SAO. _Just don’t kill Asuna._ ”

 

“Don’t forget this, either - your memory, along with everyone else’s memory, will be wiped from the day they first logged on to Sword Art Online.”

 

“What?”

 

**_\- now -_ **

 

I’m greeted by a vibrant blue, partly-cloudy sky when I come to my senses, lying down in a meadow.

 

_Where am I?_

 

After sitting up and gazing off into the distance, with absolutely nothing but grass stretching in all directions, I notice a piece of paper on the ground in front of me.

 

“Sword Art Online will begin momentarily; NerveGear instructions will follow,” it reads in big, bold print.

 

_Wha - oh! I’m in SAO, I forgot. I remember buying the beta, but I don’t remember anything about it._

 

I sit there, in that very spot, waiting for this new and amazing game to start. Was I taking a nap just now? Did I really get the game _that_ early to have that much time to nap? I mean, I know I was a beta tester, but I still had to buy a new copy, just not new NerveGear. _Whatever,_ I think to myself. _None of it will matter once it all starts._

 

And a few minutes after my awakening, the paper begins glowing, and, upon looking at it, it states, “Good luck, guys!” before my vision is dominated by whiteness, and the words “Welcome to Sword Art Online!” appear above the wall of the coliseum-like building I was just transported to before plenty of other people are transported around me. I get a glimpse of some of the faces of the new SAO players, their expressions ranging from rapid confusion to extreme excitement.

 

_Are we going to get to make our avatars? I don’t have one, and it doesn’t seem like anyone else has one, either._

 

Someone taps my shoulder. I swerve around to see a twentysomething year old woman, clearly in need of help.

 

“Excuse me, do you know how to logout? I can’t find my husband who was supposed to get on with me, and I also have kids to take care of. I didn’t know it’d take this long to load the game, and now that it’s started, I would’ve thought it would let you quit…”  


“I, uh - Try swiping from up to down with your finger? I can’t remember… Sorry,” I quickly reply before disappearing into the crowd.

 

The enormous crowd of people constantly shuffles around, probably to find their friends or loved ones. I move along with it. I’m hoping I’ll see a familiar face, even though it’s thousands and thousands of people all packed into this place; this game’s pretty popular at my school, with more than a few beta testers attending there. I’m sure I’ll eventually see someone.

 

Amidst my search a barrier suddenly forms in the sky, and it’s tinted red, with the words “WARNING” spanning across it. Everybody pauses and directs their attention towards the red globe forming over the coliseum, followed by some kind of creature forming out of it.

 

_It’s the Game Master,_ I think.

 

_Kayaba Akihiko._

 

A giant person with a red robe descends from the top of the translucent globe. Everybody cheers with excitement, including me, and after around thirty seconds all of our voices are muted.

 

“Hello, new SAO players,” he states, his voice resonating the entire place.

 

“I am aware that some of you are confused, as right now it is impossible to log out. A glitch happened earlier, delaying the initial SAO launch. I apologize for any inconveniences that resulted from that; however, I have something else to announce, as well.

 

“This is going to be blunt, and will take many of you by surprise; worry not, though, as I _know_ you will all be capable of beating this.

 

“It is impossible to logout of Sword Art Online right now, and it will stay this way until the game is beat.”

 

_Is this a prank?_ I think. Unable to say anything at the moment, I scan around and see other people’s faces, still filled with confusion as it was earlier.

 

“It will be pointless to explain now. But I trust one day, you will figure things out. I haven’t any time left, so I bid you all farewell, and good luck.”

 

He disappears out of thin air, as does the red WARNING barrier. Everyone’s unmuted, and after everybody figure that out, screams erupt the majority of the SAO players sprint in random direction, attempt to log out by manually removing the NerveGear, and just go absolutely insane.

 

I realize this isn’t a joke, and that doesn’t even register with me for a few minutes. I place my hands in my pocket and begin to walk off as the memories of playing the SAO beta come back to me all at once, along with how to open the menu. Then, I notice something in my right pocket, and pull it out.

 

A small picture of a girl with orange-brown hair and a blissful smile in some kind of wooden house. I turn it around and see some kind of message.

 

“FIND ME”


	2. New Game

_**Chapter 1: New Game** _

_**Kirito's Point of View** _

_**-then-** _

_It's a horrible thing to do._

_I'm sacrificing so many people's lives, just for Asuna._

_When have I become so selfish?_ I ask myself.

_I won't even remember her…_

"Kayaba," I say. He turns his head towards me. "Can I talk to her before it… it starts?"

"I'm afraid not," he replies. "I can give you this, though." He raises his hand and a small piece of paper appears. He hands it to me.

_It's a picture of her…_

I stare at it, nearly breaking into tears.

"Give me a pen," I demand. He forms one and gives it to me. I turn the paper over and write the words "FIND ME" on the back.

_I'll find you, Asuna. Even if I don't know you, and you don't know me._

_But I will._

_**-now-** _

_Year 1, Day 1_

_Floor 1_

I still haven't come to terms with what I've just been told.

_Is it even possible?_

_I don't know, but so far I haven't been convinced it isn't,_ I think as I run across a rugged, grassy terrain, dodging monsters left and right. There's not a town in sight, and a safe zone is all I'm looking for. The digital sun heavily shines on my face, like the real sun, and the grass I'm sprinting through is trampled by my shoes, likes real grass.

_It's impressive,_ I think.

_To think a grand game like this is being used for trapping so many people…_

_At least you can't die,_ I think.

A real, evil mastermind would do something like if we were to die in the game, we'd die in real life. At least that's not the case.

After running a long way I eventually find myself in a large town, with only NPCs in sight. "Would you like a sword, sir?" one asks me as I carefully walk by. I turn my head towards the NPC in some kind of weapons hut, and pick a generic beginner's sword. "You now have 200 gold. Thanks!" it tells me as I'm handed the sword, along with a free scabbard to hold my sword. A prompt abruptly greets me, saying, "Sword Name?"

_You couldn't name swords in the beta,_ I think.

_Neat._

I type in the first name that comes to mind: "Restructor". I'm pretty sure that's not a real word. I sheathe my new blade and continue traversing the new city.

_Looks like I'm the first one in this city._

Despite nearly all of the NPCs nicely greeting me when I walk by, it just feels… unwelcome. The hotels, spanning multiple floors high, with nobody occupying any of the rooms; the taverns and restaurants, not a soul in any of them; nobody roaming the streets, either. Except for me, of course.

I've run so far, farther than most, probably. I'm guessing everybody else has flocked to some other town close to that coliseum.

My own little town.

Heh.

Anyways, after lurking around the city a little bit longer, I decide to go back outside of the city limits and fight some monsters. I jog until the grassy plains comes into sight, and then sprint past the obnoxiously loud NPCs and begin slashing at every monster I see.

_They've definitely added more monsters,_ I think, as they die and respawn extremely fast. This area seems to be crawling with them, but since I'm only on the first floor of Castle Aincrad, they're all extremely easy to kill.

_Speaking of Castle Aincrad, I wonder where the tower is that transports you up the different floors are?_

_Wait, I'm an idiot._

I swipe down in the air and I'm greeted by the menu. I tap on Inventory to see my Restructor Sword, the picture of that girl, and what looks like a teleport crystal. I hold it up and study it, and while it seems like I've never held it in my life, I feel like I know how it works. Kayaba barely told the SAO playerbase anything, except that we're trapped here; maybe I used one in the beta?

I don't know.

The "logout" button catches my attention from the corner of my eye, and I tap it, only to receive no sort of response. After trying a few more times, I'm finally convinced I'm trapped in this game for real.

**. . .**

_Year 1, Day 1_

_Floor 1_

_Alexandria, a town with a bustling community, just outside of the coliseum_

I stare down at the picture of the girl with the words "FIND ME" on the back, pondering over where it came from, who she is, and why I found it in my pocket earlier. I guess it's one of the many mysteries of this game that will keep me going.

Alexandria, the fast-growing town I transported to earlier, already has apartments filled up to the max, and seems to be the most populous city on the first floor. I have a feeling it's gonna stay that way. As I strut through the crowded streets, with parties forming all around me and entire guild discussions taking place, I decide to try and join in with a seemingly nice group.

They're sitting outside what looks like the exterior of a coffee shop, and I tap on one of their shoulders and a small, yet kind-of scary-looking guy turns his head, and says, "Yeah?"

"I-I'm looking for a guild. Can I possibly join _your_ guild?"

He turns his body around a bit more, and the team's discussion goes on pause, their eyes all directed at me.

"I don't know, _can you_?" he sarcastically replies.

"Laker, don't be an asshole," the blonde girl sitting across from him retorts.

"Fine, fine. Anyway, uh, dude… you play the beta? Looks like you've got quite the items already."

"Yeah, I played the beta, but I don't remember that much."

"The beta was last week."

"I… I have a bad memory. So, can I join?"

"You can join… on one condition."

"Hm?"

"I want one of those items."

"Seriously?" the same girl says. "You don't have to give him _anything,_ Kirito. He's just messing around."

"Nah, nah, it's fine, uh… here," I say, as I pull out the FIND ME note, "I don't know what this is but you can have it," I reply, knowing he wanted one of my more valuable items.

"Loopholin' bastard. I like your style. Welcome to the guild."

**. . .**

Alright, there are five members of the guild I've just joined:

Laker, the sarcastic asshole who's the leader of the guild. Apparently he can get serious in an instant, but for the most part he'll retort anything and everything people say.

July (pronounced "joo-lee")(female), the second-in-command that doesn't like putting up with Laker's crap yet follows him around everywhere he goes. Probably secretly likes Laker.

Lonius, Laker's older brother who seems to be taking the game seriously even before he knew we were trapped in here. Puts up with Laker's attitude but seems to be secretly jealous of his skills.

Mell, a girl who barely knows anybody else in the guild except for July, and is only playing because July convinced her to. Not much else is known.

xGabrielx (prefers to be called Gabe), a guy who just hangs out with Laker & July at their school.

Not much is known about Gabe either because he's the one who told me all of this not too long ago. Seems like a pretty cool group; however, I don't like being the outlier. They all already (kinda) know each other.

Eh, I'll get over it.

I'm currently in the apartment we all pitched in gold to rent for some time, and it includes a bit of furniture, but not enough according to Laker, so he's set out to find some. July went with him because she thinks he'll buy something stupid.

"So, uh, Kirito, where ya from?" Gabe asks. We're sitting in what's probably the living room, though it may be changed later.

"Tokyo."

"Cool. You say you're a beta tester?"

"Yep."

"How'd you get in?"

"I got sent an email randomly. Are there any more questions? I'm kinda feelin' hungry."

"But you're in a video game."

"Holy crap… I just realized… How are we supposed to eat if we're trapped in this game?"

"I have no idea."

**. . .**

_There's an uproar in the city._

They're all shouting, "LET US OUT! LET US OUT!" in what seems to be the town square; more and more players join in by the minute.

_That's not going to get them anywhere,_ I think. Gabe and July join after a few minutes, and before I know it the entire town is in on it. They're chanting at different times, and instead of trying to protest something these dweebs look like they're just making a mess. I take a closer look at the scene, walking out of the apartment building and directly into the angry crowd as they begin almost screaming.

"Kirito!" July calls out. She runs up to me, and asks, "Why aren't you chanting? We need as many people as we can get!"

"I don't think it's really going to do anything… Besides, if it does get the GameMaster's attention, what do you expect him to do?"

"I don't know, but I want something!" I replies before joining back in the mob-chant.

_I think instead of trying something that will inevitably fail these players should focus on the game and how to beat it: the faster it's beat, the faster we get home._

_Sometimes I feel like logic is nonexistent within some people._

I sigh, and begin walking away from the town square, as I start to feel hungry, and a thought comes to mind: _Is this feeling supposed to be that I'm hungry in real life, or in the game?_

_I'm gonna go eat something either way._

So, I strut into a restaurant, knowing nobody's probably going to be there because all of the Alexandrians are out wasting there time, only to see that girl Mell sitting at a table alone. She has long, brown hair, green eyes, and is just a tad taller than I. No armor on her, though I don't have any either.

"Mell," I say, when she quickly turns her head and looks at me in a surprised manner.

"Ki-kirito?"

"Why aren't you out there chanting with the rest of 'em?" I ask her as I walk up to the NPC restaurant owner, choosing what to order.

"Because I think it's stupid," she replies. "What is the game creator gonna do? All I can see him doing is muting them for a bit."

"Finally, someone agrees!" I happily say, as I clutch my large coffee cup and my buttery biscuit, taking a seat across from Mell.

"Are we the only ones not wasting their time out there?" I ask her.

"Don't know… At least I know there are other cities with less stupid people."

"Thought everyone piled up in this city."

"No. They did at first, then they started travelling to other cities, and some went to check out this floor's dungeon."

"Yeah… also, when are we going to pick our avatar?"

"Don't know, don't care. I honestly prefer it this way."

"I don't. Look at me, a scrawny fourteen year-old."

"Well, Mr. scrawny fourteen year old, maybe you shouldn't use a game to mask that insecurity."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I guess you're right, Mell… By the way, what's your surname?"

"I'd rather not tell anybody. Mell isn't my first name either, I like to keep things private."

"Understandable."

A minute or two later, after I gobble down my biscuit, Mell looks like she's about to say something, and I look up at her. Her mouth moves like she's speaking, but nothing's coming out. Then, I see a mute symbol above her head, and say, "You're muted!"

But I don't hear my own voice, nor does Mell respond. She looks just above my head with a weird expression before she realizes what's going on too. We simultaneously stand up, bewildered, when a thought comes to mind: _the protest._

_Dammit, I knew nothing good would come out of that stupid protest,_ I think. _Maybe we'll get some answers?_

Whilst in thought, I look down to see my hand, noticing an odd green ring on my index finger. I study it, and then it glows green for a second, followed by my hand, glowing green, then my whole body - before I know it, I'm back in the coliseum I was in earlier today, followed by a plethora of other players being transported here as well.

_Another announcement?_

The GameMaster's already here, looming over us, the weak, ignorant playerbase he's in control of… and then he starts speaking.

"Greetings," he starts. "I know there is some wild havoc and confusion, so I want to set things straight before things go off the rails: there is nothing you can do to logout of this game, and there's no way for me to log you out, either. The only way you, as the player, can survive this game is if you _beat_ it. Am I clear?"

' _Survive'...?_

"Along with that, if someone from the real world attempts to remove your NerveGear, you will perish. If, somehow & some way you're able to hack past the darkened out logout button, you will perish. _If you die in the game, you also die in real life_."

_WHAT_

"You may be wondering why I'm doing this. I want you to know I'm in complete control of whether you live or die, so I suggest you do not try anything: I'm actually being kind, here. And, for the beta testers, you're in for a surprise."

"Safe zones no longer exist."

_**Asuna's Point of View** _

_**-then-** _

"Asuna, I want you to find me. I know you won't remember me, and I won't remember you, but I… I… I want to meet you again. I want to become friends with you again… I want to fall in love with you _all over again._ I'm going to wear this green ring the GameMaster's allowed me to take into the game… here, I'll give you the red one."

I can't see him, but I can hear him. Apparently only he's allowed to see anything right now, and all of the other players are unconscious.

"I'm going to write you a note and ask Kayaba to place it in your pocket one SAO restarts. I have one, too."

_I wish I could tell him I love him. That's all I want to do right now…_

"Asuna, I love you, and good luck," he says, before whiteness dominates my vision.


	3. Near-Death Experience

_**Kirito's Point of View** _

_Year 1, Day 1_

_Floor 1_

_Alexandria_

I'm in the temporary apartment my guild rented in Alexandria. The rest of my guild are here too, anxiously waiting for the outside streets to calm down. All we can hear is screaming and other outrage; after the news that there are no more safe zones in the game, meaning _anyone can kill anybody at all times,_ everybody's losing their minds.

I give this playerbase about a week before they toughen up.

And I know that someone, somewhere is going to take advantage of this new rule change and these people are going to figure out that this isn't just a game anymore.

The announcement has had the worst effect on Gabe, who hasn't uttered a word since said announcement. It's bad enough that if you die in the game, you die in real life, but _this_ is just insane, man…

"Are we just going to sit here or are we going to get moving?" July asks in a concerned tone. Laker turns his head towards her, who is nervously pacing around the room.

"What are we supposed to do? If we stay in here, we won't make any progress and level up like the rest of the players, but if we go outside we could get killed on the spot easily. I just-I-I don't know!"

"Laker, calm down. You're clearly too anxious to be making any decisions," I tell him. _I don't blame him for being scared in a situation like this, though._

"Then what do _you_ suppose we do, Kirito?"

"We need to eventually make our way outside but we have to plan it. What that plan may be, however, I have no clue."

He takes a seat on the closest couch and thinks for a moment.

"Lonius," he says, talking to his quiet, older brother. "Thoughts?"

"I guess I agree with Kirito, but we'd have to plan fast. I don't know if players can break through locked doors or not, but it'd best if we don't find out while we can't properly defend ourselves."

" _Can't properly defend ourselves"... what?_

"Do you guys have any weapons?" I hopefully ask. To my dismay, they all shake their head, except for Mell, who doesn't respond.

"Mell?" I ask. She looks up at me, and reluctantly says, "Yeah?"

"You have a weapon?"

"Uh- yeah, I have this cheap sword some NPC sold me. Why?"

"Just asking."

"Well, guys," July starts, "we need to figure things out quickly and also escape from this town as fast as possible."

"Where would we even go?" asks Mell.

Something comes to mind.

"Before I arrived at this city I found this other abandoned one way up north. I'm sure nobody's there right now, you guys wanna give it a try?"

"WAIT!" Laker shouts. "CAN WE TRANSPORT TO THAT CITY?"

Annoyed, July replies, "No, we can only transport somewhere if we've been there, and all of us have only been in this city except for Kirito."

"Oh."

**. . .**

"Hey, uh, Lake - is it okay if I call you Lake? - do you have that picture I gave you earlier?"

"Yeah, and don't call me that."

"Well, um… before we do this, is there any chance I could… have it back?"

"I guess, I mean I don't really need it… who _is_ this, anyway?" he asks as he takes it from his inventory. "Your girlfriend, possibly?"

"No, no, no, no, no, she's… that's… can I just have it back?"

"Alrighty then, here's the picture of your girlfriend. Don't cheat on her!" he teases.

 _I don't even know why I have this,_ I think, looking down at the picture of the mysterious girl. _But I feel the strange need to carry it with me._

Anyway, the guild's come up with a plan to ensure our way out of this city without anyone getting killed. Mell's insisted that nobody will probably even try to harm us because they're too scared until we witnessed a certain player murder an entire small guild from out the window; needless to say, she's convinced now.

_I'll teleport to the entrance of Alexandria to see if it's safe. If not, I'll try and hide, and if someone tries to kill me I'll teleport to that one city up north I travelled to earlier and message my guild to wait. If the entrance to Alexandria is safe, I'll message everybody and we'll leave safely. I don't know how it took an hour to figure this out, but I'm glad we at least have some kind of plan._

My entire guild looks at me with different expressions: some confident, some worried, and one bland.

"Ready, Kirito?" Laker confidently asks.

"Ready."

"Remember, don't die," he says as I say, "Teleport, Alexandria!"

I disappear and reappear at the overarching gate that leads into the bloodbath known as Alexandria, which was once a prosperous city. I take a good look at my surroundings, seeing nobody in sight, except for shadows lurking inside buildings. I spot my guild's apartment and see somebody looking out the window at me.

I jog out of Alexandria and search out in the field for any looming figures; nobody's there. I check the streets one more time, and then search in the dark alleyways. Nobody again. Right as I'm telling my guild it's okay I hear someone say, "Are you really _that_ stupid?"

I sprint for the box of crates in the back part of the alley and hide. Someone walks into view. _It's the guy who took down an entire guild from earlier._

"There's ignorant, there's stupid, there's stupid-ignorant, and then there's you," he says, as we accidentally make eye contact.

"Teleport- uh… uhm…"

_WHAT WAS THE CITY'S NAME?!_

Without thinking I yell,"Teleport Alexandria!" and I find myself right behind the man; he's wearing a white cloak, no armor, and the same level sword as I. He immediately turns around, and I notice his name: _Ulf._

"You're definitely something," he chuckles, before charging up his sword and slashing at me.

Somehow I abruptly block his strike and his sword goes flying in the other direction. _Where did I learn to do that?_ Surprised, he takes out a small dagger and tries to land a blow on my multiple times, but I'm able to stop each one with my sword… Like, it feels natural. Eventually I knock the dagger out of his hand as well and he gets furious.

"You're a beta tester, aren't you, you little asshole!" he yells at me before running for his sword lying in that one alleyway from earlier.

"Well, so was I, kid!"

Confident, I try to land a strike on him with my sword. He successfully blocks it. I hack, slash, hack, slash, and stab, but to no avail; we're equally matched. After a few minutes, he looks as if he's given up and stops attacking.

"Alright, I'm done here, you're free to go, kid," he says, as a smile forms on my face. I turn around and begin typing in, "It's okay, gu-" before a sword is driven through my chest. My HP bar starts lowering very fast.

"Shit, what the hell - what?" I struggle. After a few seconds, Mell transports in front of the gate, sprints towards me, and stabs Ulf in the face.

"Back off," she says in a threatening tone. The sword is taken out of my body and I fall down to see my HP in the red zone. The last thing I see is Mell's angry expression before I black out.

**. . .**

"He's an idiot, that's what he is. He didn't think the plan through. Almost got himself killed."

"I was the one who thought up the plan, it's my fault."

"But it was _his_ life on the line! _He's_ responsible for his own life, okay? No more stupid plans like this, okay, idiots?"

"Mell, why are you so hostile?"

"BECAUSE KIRITO JUST ALMOST GOT MURDERED!"

"Yeah, that's something you can get mad about. But he's alive."

I open my eyes to see my guild arguing about the plan in the apartment; I'm lying down on a quite comfortable couch. Gabe notices I'm awake, and says, "Finally, you're awake!" and runs over to me.

"Dude, Mell says you almost died! Is that true?"

"I-I don't know…"

"He _did_ almost die and if I wasn't there he actually _would_ be dead."

_Man, her attitude changed quick. Quiet and reserved to angry and frustrated._

I sit up on the couch. I notice everybody has a weapon sheathed.

"You all… got weapons."

"Yep!" Laker says. "And let's hope we won't be using them on the way to your city."

After a brief discussion concerning the whereabouts of said city we're travelling to, we all teleport to the entrance of Alexandria and immediately huddle up and look in every direction; there's only one person, and it's an unarmed guy, seemingly frightened by our presence.

"D-don't kill me!" he pleads. His name is Zefram, and he looks about thirteen.

"What are you doing on these streets?" I ask him. "Do you have a deathwish?"

"No, I have no -"

"Come on, Kirito," Mell tells me. "It's not worth it."

We leave the town and begin heading for the north town; we kill some monsters along the way, and I even level up to level 2, and one of the monsters drop a small dagger, which I name "Small Restructor." I start to recognize the field we're jogging through, and also the fact that we're almost to the city.

"How far did you run to get here, Kirito?" Gabe asks, panting.

"Far."

Not too long later the overarching gate comes into sight, and, after killing a few more monsters and Laker levels up, we reach the town. Excited, I sprint into the city and see it has a name:"Northern Lights." Mell runs up beside me and says, "Stop doing that! Be careful before you make blind decisions, okay?"

"This city didn't have a name last time," I say, not in response to Mell but to myself.

"What?" she asks.

"Someone's been here… someone or a group of people have named this town already…"

"Or, it's just pre-named. I'm pretty sure Alexandria was pre-named. Right?" Laker says.

"Yeah, we were one of the first guilds in Alexandria and that name's been there for a while."

I convince myself we're alone in the city as we traverse its streets, the NPCs desperately trying to sell us items and the concrete as clean as possible. The apartments are tall and seem expensive, yet there's no one to inhabit them; _excluding us,_ I think.

Earlier we had sold our old apartment for half of the gold we spent on it, and as a whole we still have enough to buy one here.

"Let's go get something to eat," Gabe asks as we approach the tall, wooden building. Everyone looks back at him.

"Agreed," I reply. Everyone else nods, and we head to the nearest restaurant, named, "Lightning Bar." We all take a seat down at a large booth and an NPC waitress approaches us, and we order a meal. The sky outside is starting to get dark, and so far it's been a hell of a first day in Sword Art Online. I pull out the picture of the "FIND ME" girl and study it a bit more before my food comes. July looks over at it, as she's sitting next to me.

"That your GF?"

"Nope."

"Then who is it?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I found it in my inventory when I started. On the back, it says 'FIND ME,' look." I show her, and she seems to be intrigued by it.

"Hm. Maybe it's one of those quests with vague instructions that you have to solve for yourself."

"Maybe."

So we enjoy ourselves for that one moment, chatting away with each other; even Mell opens up a little bit more. The food tastes how it would taste in real life, and honestly everything seems like it's real life right now. The virtual sun is eventually replaced by the virtual moon, and around that time is when we rent another apartment which comes with a really cool lock system. We transfer our old furniture to here and a prompt comes up for Laker, who the apartment is currently owned by: "Name for place of residence?"

"Guys?" he asks. "What shall we call this place?"

"Well, what's our guild name?" I reply.

He thinks for a moment, before Mell speaks up, "It's 'The Strikers'. Could've been more creative in my opinion."

"That's a fine name. Then this place shall be called Strikerplace."

Everybody murmurs in agreement, and then we all settle down for the night.

 _Good night, Sword Art Online,_ I think, before dozing off to sleep in the room I share with Gabe.

**. . .**

_I'm inside some kind of wooden cabin._

_When did I get here? I look around; it all feels familiar. There's a little girl with long, black hair sitting across from me, talking with… with…_

_...the girl from the FIND ME picture. They're happily chatting away._

_A minute later, as I rock in a wooden rocking chair, the two look over to me._

" _What do you think, Kirito? Should we or should we not?" the girl from the FIND ME picture asks. Her name isn't showing, and neither is the little girl's._

" _Should we what?"_

" _Should we find each other?" she asks, bef_ ore I come to my senses.

"Rise and shine, Kirito," I hear Gabe say.

_Year 1, Day 2_

_Floor 1_

_Northern Lights_

Gabe looks half-worried but is seemingly calm as he stands beside my bed, waking me up. I notice his qualities: brown hair, freckles, skinny arms, and blue eyes.

"What's the matter?"

"We've got a small problem. There's a guild as big as us wandering around town."

He takes a seat on my bed and I sit up and listen.

"Is anybody else awake?"

"No, and nobody else _needs_ to be awake, because I have an idea for just the two of us."

"What's that?"

"We're going to steal their stuff."

"Huh?"

"Yeah! I mean, we won't kill them or anything, but we can let them know that this is our town and also get some loot on the side. I got a pretty cool sword from a monster drop, and you've got your supposed sword skills Mell talked about, so I think we should do this."

"Why not tell the rest of the guild."

"They won't risk it, trust me."

"Alrighty then. I'm down. When we doin' this?"

"I guess in a few hours. Let's go eat breakfast."

We eat the cereal Laker found somewhere (half the entire box) and carefully exit the apartment.

"Do we have a backup plan?" I ask Gabe.

"Of course," he replies, as we walk down the apartment stairs (we had bought the entire third floor). "If all goes to hell we'll transport back to our apartment. We can do that, apparently."

As soon as we're back on the streets a familiar voice calls out to us.

"KIRITO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

_Mell._


	4. The Item

_**Kayaba Akihiko (AKA the GameMaster)'s Point of View** _

_There's so much less players than when SAO last started; so, I've come up with a plan to add more players: a new VR game. I'll have to use a different identity, though._

_When the new players login to the "new VR game," they'll simply be locked inside SAO. They'll be instantly told that you will perish if you die ingame and also that there are no safe zones and no penalty for killing. There's almost no way it can fail unless nobody buys the game, and even though SAO nearly killed the VR industry it's been slowly rising again._

_Anyway, Kirito seems to be doing well. He almost died on day one, but other than that, he's getting along really well. Maybe he'll meet all of his old friends in the future; I may have given his friends a few things that could lead them to meet each other again. However, if he gains memory of said friends I'll have to do something about it, because if he can remember something from the past he can remember everything from the past._

_But I'm sure it won't have to come to that, right?_

_Right?_

_**Kirito's Point of View** _

_Year 1, Day 2_

_Floor 1_

_Northern Lights_

"KIRITO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

_Mell._

"We're going to eat breakfast, what's your problem?" Gabe replies defensively.

"Yeah, you seriously need to chill."

"You guys already ate breakfast though! Plus, you didn't wake anybody else up!" she yells in response.

"Mell," I say.

"What?"

"Turn around. Go back inside. Go back to bed."

She reluctantly storms back inside and slams the door.

"What's her problem?" I ask Gabe.

"I don't know. She's weird - one minute she seems so closed off and antisocial and the other she's screaming at everybody."

**. . .**

_There's four people. One's unarmed, one has a dagger, and two have the same level sword as I._

_This ought be easy._

"Kirito," someone says from behind. I jerk up, surprised, to see Gabe, with the crippling poison he told me he was going to buy.

"Oh. You scared me. And they're just over there, past that Lightning restaurant we went to last night."

"Ready?" he asks. I pull out my sword.

"Ready."

We climb the shack we're hiding behind and climb onto the Lightning Bar Restaurant and steadily make our way towards them. They've stopped, and they're looking at some kind of map; so, we stop once we reach the edge of the building and look down on them.

"Klein, are you sure this is the city?"

"Look! The map says _right here_ that whatever moving item is in this city!"

"'Moving item'? So what we're on a wild goose chase for is mobile? God damn, dude, we need to focus on other things, like _not dying_! We're out in the open for anybody to see us."

_They seem to be conflicted, this is the perfect time…_

"Klein, are you even listening to me?" one yells at the other.

"No, I'm zooming in. The map says… the item's in that restaurant over there."

The group turns and stares at Lightning Bar.

_Shit._

_Wait, no. This is good. They'll be distracted._

I look at Gabe, and whisper, "Let's wait until they go inside, okay? They'll be distracted."

He nods in response, and we wait until the guild wander inside, and then jump to the ground.

"Now it's _outside_ this place. What the crap?"

We run to the entrance and stare them down; they're all looking around, confused. The guy with the virtual map notices us, then looks back at the map.

"Now it says the item's right at the entrance." He looks back up.

"Are you guys the item?"

Before I respond the same guy whose username is Klein says, "Wait. Step back a few times, you with the black hair."

I comply, and he looks back at the map, then back at me, bewildered.

He points at me and says, "You're the item!"

"I'm the item?"

"Yes!"

"What?" Gabe asks.

"Why am I the item?" I ask, confused.

"Because this map shows where a certain item is, and we've been hunting it down ever since yesterday and it's tracking _you!_ "

"What if something I'm carrying is the item?"

They pause, look at each other, then back at me.

"I guess that means we'll have to take it from you."

They simultaneously unsheathe their weapons and charge forward. I unsheathe mine and jerk backwards before Gabe hurls the cripple potion at them and they all fall to the ground.

"Well," I say, "that was quick."

Klein utters, "B-bastards… you… how did you do that?"

"Simple," replies Gabe. "Cripple potion. Don't worry, we won't kill you, we just want some of your items and for your guild to never come back to the city of Northern Lights while we're here, got it?"

"G-got it…"

**. . .**

As soon as I open the door to my guild's apartment I'm greeted by Mell.

"What did you do?"

"Eat breakfast."

"You sure?" she asks in response.

"Well, I'm not _that_ sure… Hmm, let's see, it's 8:29 - but it's 11:00 somewhere, right? So I could be eating lunch. Or brunch. Other than that, I'm pretty sure I ate breakfast."

"Listen to me! Nobody here wants to keep you in check so I have to! Whatever you two just did probably could've gotten you both killed and I need you to stop."

"Mell!" Laker calls out as he exits his bedroom. "I seriously need you to tone it down a few notches. You're like an 8 right now, and I need you to be a 2."

"Shut up, Laker, these dweebs almost got themselves killed."

"We found loot," Gabe announces as he drops an iron chestplate, a few weapons, and some gold to the ground.

"Did you guys kill someone?" Laker asks.

"No, no, no! We stole it from them and told them to never come back."

"Oh. Well, dibs on the chestplate."

"Dammit," I hear Lonius say from the couch across the room.

"Oh my GOD you people are so pitiful!" Mell angrily says as she storms off into her bedroom she has to herself, and slams the door in the same manner she did earlier.

We settle back into the apartment and give everybody a bit of the loot, except for Mell, who doesn't want any of it. Everybody goes out into the field right by the entrance to Northern Lights to kill some monsters and possibly level up; after slashing at giant rats and angry boars for about thirty minutes we stop and look over our loot.

I find a new sword, which has a unique red handle and a blue blade, and seems fairly powerful in comparison to my other sword. I name it Restructor 2.0. Gabe finds an iron helmet and equips it, and July finds a bow and names it Evergreen. Upon asking her why she named it that, she replies that it's a reference to a movie. Just as we're sorting out our new items we all get a notification at the same time.

"There's a… newsletter?" July asks. In the "announcements" tab of my menu there's a message that says "Weekly Newsletter 1". _Hm._

"Why in the world would there be a newsletter for a death game like _this?_ " I ask.

I open it, and begin reading:

_-Sword Art Online Weekly Newsletter 1_

_-Tuesday, Day 2, Year 1_

_-Disclaimer: this is unofficial, but I got special permission from the GameMaster to make_ _these, and unless you block me (Mr. Crazikens) you'll be receiving these every_ _week in your Announcements tab._

-It's been a day since this game has started and a plethora have players have already perished. Following the announcement that safe zones are now nonexistent, the SAO playerbase quickly got their act together and began wandering off in search of towns, loot, and other players to mess with. Some even murdered other players. And then some are focusing on the task at hand for us as a whole: to escape this death game. In case you forgot, in order to get out of SAO, all 100 floors of Castle Aincrad must be beaten, and then we'll all be free. The guild known as Dungeon Crawlers are currently working towards beating the first floor already, and reside in the city Stone Tower, which is the second biggest city due to the protection from murderers they offer, next to Alexandria, the bloodbath city, in which multiple guilds are currently fighting over.

-Leaderboard:

_-Guild Stats_

-Biggest Guild: Dungeon Crawlers

-Guild that has travelled the farthest (average): The Strikers

-Guild that has killed the most monsters (total): Superlatory

-Guild with most control over Alexandria: CollegeDwellers

_-Player Stats_

-Player w/ most XP: Ulf

-Player that has killed the most monsters: Stormy

-Player that has lost the most health in total, but hasn't died: Asuna

-(I get these stats from the GameMaster himself, btw)

-If you would like to help me with this weekly newsletter, send me a message, my inbox is open to non-friends for six hours every tuesday; I'll get back to you ASAP. I didn't have enough time to think of every possible stat; next time we may do guild -milestones and such.

-This is Mr. Crazikens, signing off.

 _Well, that's new,_ I think.

"Hey! We've travelled the farthest!" Gabe shouts. "Nice!"

"Then there's that asshole Ulf, who tried to kill me. Wonder what he's doing right now."

"Maybe we should stop by Stone Tower and see what's going on there. But only a few people, as someone needs to watch over our city," Lonius comments.

"Later," I say. "We probably need to fortify our town before we do anything. Level up a bit more, gather more weapons."

"I agree with Kirito," Mell says.

_Well that's a first._

"We still need to focus mainly on survival, and if we're sure we're good we can help out the Dungeon Crawlers to get to the second floor, and maybe we'll even find a place up there to stay," Mell continues. "Anyways, who would want to go to Stone Tower?"

"Me!" I quickly shout. Mell rolls her eyes and says, "of course" under her breath.

"I'll go," says Gabe, followed by July and Lonius joining in.

"Well," Laker says, "You guys can head out whenever you're ready. But not today, or tomorrow."

**. . .**

I'm sitting in my bed, about to take a nap when I receive a message.

_-From: Klein_

_-Open?_

_-Yes_ - _No_

 _It's the guy Gabe and I stole from,_ I think.

_-From: Klein_

-Hey, asshole, it's me. In case you're wondering, my guild has better weapons than we had last time, and all we have on our mind is you, and your friend xGabrielx. I don't know whether or not the item we're looking for is _you_ or something in your inventory, but I can guarantee we'll find out soon enough. Watch your back.

-Klein

I chuckle a bit before falling asleep.

_And then I'm at that same house from last night. I had forgotten all about it until now._

_The girl from the FIND ME picture stands up and walks into a different room, saying, "I'll cook up some lunch. You guys sit tight, it'll be ready pretty soon!"_

_The other little girl, who looks around eight years old, turns her head towards me._

" _Daddy, can we go fishing?"_

" _Well, sweetie, don't you remember what has to happen before that?" I ask out of nowhere. I didn't even do that, it just kind of came out of my mouth._

" _Oh, yeah, sorry. You and mommy have to find eachot -" the girl_ _re_ plies before I wake up to Mell's voice.

"Kirito, please wake up."

"Wake up!"

"Wha - what? What do you want? How long was I asleep?"

"Shut up. I need you to listen: there's a guild outside of our apartment looking for you and Gabe, and since I assume they're the guild you and Gabe stole from this morning it's your job to figure it out, okay? I'm not helping you this time."

"Good, I don't need your help," I reply, half-smirking. She pulls me out of my bed and points to the door of my bedroom.

"GO. NOW."

"On it."

I find Gabe, who's looking out the window at the four people, angry and desperate for revenge.

"That's a nice sword," he comments. "Maybe we'll have that as well."

"Let's not mess with these guys anymore," I say. "I'd rather not stir up too much conflict."

"Fine. Alright, you ready?"

I check through my inventory and make sure I have a backup weapon.

"You still got the cripple potion?"

"Yeah, it's half gone, though."

We carefully open the door and walk down the stairs leading to the ground with our hands in the air. The entire guild jumps back before three of them pull out bows and aim it as us and the leader, Klein, pulls out a sword.

"Item?" he asks aloud.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb with me, we want the item."

"I don't know what 'the item' is!"

"Figure it out!"

"HOW?!"

"Alright," he says, pulling out his map and zooms in on our position.

"The map says it's right where you're standing. So pull out every item you have, one by one, and place it somewhere away from you."

I do that. I place my sword beside me, then my dagger, then the healing potion I found earlier.

"Anything else?" he asks.

"Nope."

"That's funny, because the map's still saying the item is right… there. Where you are."

I realize I had forgotten one item: the FIND ME picture. I pull it out and place it by the stairs, on top of all of my other items. I see Mell in the window, carefully watching everything that's happening. I give her a sarcastic smile and wave, and she gives me the finger.

"That's - that's it! Holy shit! What is - is that a picture? Give me it!" Klein excitingly demands. I pick it up, study it, and fling it at him.

"What is this?" he asks.

"It's the item, is it not?"

He gives me a long, cold stare.

"Well, shit, we came all this way just for a freakin' picture. Come on guys, let's go to Stone Tower."

"Wait!" Gabe exclaims as they're leaving. "Why not stay with us?"

"Huh?"

_Huh?_

"Yeah!" Gabe continues. "I'm not saying our guilds need to merge, but you guys can rent an apartment here and we can all fortify this city and live here until floor 2 is unlocked!"

_That actually doesn't sound like that bad of an idea._

Klein turns to Gabe, then looks at me, then back at the three other members of his guild.

"We'll give it some thought."

**. . .**

_Year 1, Day 3_

_Floor 1_

_Northern Lights_

Nothing else really happened yesterday after Klein's confrontation. I lost the FIND ME picture, but at least now I have that whole ordeal off my chest and we may have potential allies. I messaged Klein later that night, asking him about whether or not he'll accept the offer, and he's read it but hasn't responded.

Feels weird not having that picture. Maybe it's the sense of mystery and that one day I'd figure out what it really means, and now I never will.

Oh well.

Anyway, this morning, I decide to take everybody that's going on the trip to Stone Tower outside to train and also plan. We sit in a booth at the Lightning Bar, the restaurant across from our dark, wooden apartment, and I pull out a map. Apparently, everybody gets a map, and it has its own tab in the menu. Neat.

The map only shows places a player's been, along with other essential landmarks. Right now, on my map, I have Northern Lights, up in the mid-north, the Coliseum, a bit mid-west, Alexandria, just below the coliseum, and the Floor Transport city, where players can travel between floors. I don't know where the Labyrinth Dungeon is on this floor, but I guess that information is in Stone Tower.

"Where is Stone Tower?" asks July, who's studying the virtual map placed down on the booth table.

"I don't know, we have to figure that out before we head out."

"And how will we do that?" July replies.

One person comes to mind.

_Klein._


	5. Back to Alexandria

_**Kirito's Point of View** _

_Year 1, Day 3_

_Floor 1_

_Northern Lights_

- _To: Klein_

-I don't know if you've thought about our offer any longer, but… I have another small request, and it has nothing to do w/ the offer. Do you know where Stone Tower is? Like, just a general direction would be good. Please answer back,

-Kirito

 _This ought do something to help,_ I think. I'm still in Lightning Bar with my fellow guild mates that will be travelling alongside me to Stone Tower.

"Did you send it?" asks July.

"Just sent it," I reply. "Hopefully he won't take a billion years to reply."

"Alright, I have to go and check if Laker's done anything stupid. If any of you need me, send me a message."

_Yeah… She totally has a crush on Laker. I can tell by the way she looks at him, even without Gabe telling me beforehand. Gabe just seems to know everything. He's a very observant person._

_Then there's Lonius, who's sitting across from me in the booth, and next to Gabe. He has short, black hair like his brother, Laker, but is taller, older, has more freckles, and is generally quieter._

"You two wanna spar?" I ask. They looks at each other, then back at me, and nod.

Us three walk outside and wander around town until we reach a relatively open space. It's a town square-like place, with NPC shops made out of brick, wood, and stone surrounding it in tightly-packed rows… perfect for a spar.

"Who's up first?" I ask.

"I'll go," Lonius replies, almost sounding confident.

"The only rule is no killing each other. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Okay… three, two, one!"

Lonius immediately hops forward and slices at me, and I successfully block it; I shift to the side and land a jab on his chest. Then, he jerks backwards, and quickly grabs a dagger from his inventory, and throws it at me. It lands in my left arm.

"Nice," I say, as we continue sparring. He can't land any hits on me, but I can sometimes land hits on _him._ He tries to block, but to no avail. I duck under one of his jabs and trip him, stand back up, and point my blue Restructor 2.0 sword in his face.

"GG," he says, as I hold out my hand for him to get back up. "I know you were a beta tester, but how are you _that_ good? I take real life katana lessons and you still beat me."

"Dunno. Guess I'm a natural."

A few seconds after that last sentence, a receive a message.

_-From: Mell_

_-Open?_

_**-** _ _Yes -No_

_-From: Mell_

-what are you doing?

I type in response, "just assume its something dangerous and will get me killed"

- _Mell:_ well july is supposed to be training but shes kinda flirting with laker

- _Kirito:_ if she wants to flirt then let her

- _Mell:_ why its making me uncomfortable

- _Mell:_ and i dont want to tell her what to do

- _Kirito:_ why are you asking me i dont even know you people very well

 _-Mell:_ touche

 _-Kirito:_ ok gtg i gotta keep sparring and doing dangerous stuff

 _-Mell:_ ill kill u

 _-Kirito:_ k

When I'm done chatting with Mell, I look back at Lonius and Gabe. Gabe, for some reason, is smiling in an odd fashion.

"What?" I ask.

"You know."

_?_

"Nevermind," he says, still smiling. "Let's spar."

**. . .**

I hear a knock on the door of the apartment. The time's nearing noon, but the rest of my guild won't be back until the _after_ noon. They're stocking up on weapons right now, and told me that I have to watch over the apartment.

So, naturally, I unsheathe Restructor 2.0, and carefully walk towards to locked wooden door until I'm standing directly in front of it.

"Who is it?" I ask aloud.

"It's Klein."

"Alright, hold on," I reply, sheathing my sword and opening the door just a bit to see if he's brought his other guild mates. There's no one else, so I go ahead and let him in. He takes a seat on one of the many couches we have.

Klein. I'm guessing he's in his early twenties… he has red, semi-spiky hair and a bandana, and is pretty tall.

"Let's get to the point, Kirito. Why are you going to Stone Tower?"

"Curiousity."

"Fair enough. How you getting there?"

"I don't know, uh… teleport to Alexandria and then keep going on foot."

"That's your plan?"

"I don't know! I don't even know where this town is! How do you expect me to think of a plan when I don't know where to go in the first place, genius?"

"Damn, kid. You need to chill."

"Just tell me where it is."

"Southwest of the coliseum. You teleport to Alexandria and sprint out of that bloodbath as soon as possible. Sneak through the coliseum while continually pushing south, then when you exit go west and you should see the city somewhere along those lines."

"Alright."

"Also… I'll accept the offer. _After we make it to Stone Tower._ "

"You're coming too?"

"Me and my guild-mate, also IRL friend Sko."

**. . .**

_-From: Mell_

_-Open?_

_**-** _ _Yes -No_

 _-_ dont leave just yet, ill be there in a bit

- _Kirito:_ hurry up

 _-Kirito:_ what are you even doing

 _-Mell:_ i found some potions at this npc shop way across town, thought you would need it

_She seems much nicer in chat than actually talking to her. Strange._

_I used to be like that as well until I stopped talking to my family and people at my school altogether._

"Who was that?" asks Gabe.

"Mell. She has some potions she found, we'll have to wait just a _bit_ longer."

"Don't you mean potions for _you?"_

I give Gabe a long, cold glare. He bursts out laughing before July changes the subject.

"Alright, guys, there's this thing my family likes to do when a family member is going to be gone for a while, or is doing something dangerous: write a note to a person or a group of people in case they die. Y'all wanna do that?"

"Wait!" Mell shouts, coming out of nowhere. "B-but nobody will die, right? R-right?"

"Hopefully not," I tell her. "But hey! I can't predict the future, can I?"

She slaps me, like really hard.

"You idiot! Be serious about this! If you die, I'll - I'll -"

"You'll _what?"_ I ask her, laughing. "I'll be dead, so it won't matter!"

She slaps me _again,_ but not as hard. Then, she points in my face, and says, "I'll find a way to bring you back to life just so I can beat the shit out of you."

I just laugh in response.

Laker eventually comes around and we all chat away before saying our goodbyes, and then Klein and his friend Sko walk in on the scene.

"We ready?" I ask.

"We ready," Klein replies.

Just before all of us excluding Laker and Mell teleport, Mell exclaims, "BE SAFE!"

And then we're there. In that city.

Back in Alexandria.

_Year 1, Day 3_

_Floor 1_

_Alexandria_

I quickly scan the premises; the overarching gate is behind me, shops and such are off to the left and right, and out in front of me is a concrete road and a group of players running about. I turn my head to see my guild, Klein, and his friend all doing the same. I then spot Gabe, and we make eye contact before we nod at each other, then begin running for the exit from Alexandria. And our guild follows us.

That is, until Klein's friend, Sko, suddenly appears with an arrow jutting from his upper chest. He collapses onto the ground in front of all of us as his health begins draining fast before he eventually splits into a million pieces and disappears. I turn my head back to the road that leads deeper into Alexandria to see a player with a bow, standing there, looking on at us. He grabs another arrow from his quiver, before I say, "Wait!"

I hold my hands up and slowly walk towards him. A couple of his guildmates are watching a bit behind him, and look as if they want the archer to shoot an arrow through my virtual skull.

"We're not here to fight anybody! We're leaving right now, so _please_ , don't hurt us!"

"Then why the hell did you geniuses teleport here?"

"Shortcut to Stone Tower."

"The hell's Stone Tower?"

"A city southwest of here. Did you read the newsletter yesterday?"

"Newsletter? The shit? People actually _read_ those? Well, whatever. Get outta here before I impale anotha' one of you bastards with an arrow."

I'm filled with relief and turn back around, until Klein starts screaming.

"YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!" he abruptly screeches, charging at the archer. I begin running after him until the rest of my guild does as well.

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHO HE WAS! WHO HE WAS GOING TO BE AFTER WE MADE IT OUT OF THIS DEATH GAME!"

He continues charging at him, pulling out his sword, and attempts to land a jab on him; the archers sidesteps and lands a nasty kick on his side, launching him off to the side. I rush over to him and put my hands up again, mouthing the words, "shit, shit, shit, shit."

"You lot are more stupid than I thought," he says, shooting another arrow at us. In an instant, I unsheathe my sword and slice the arrow out of midair, splitting it into two perfect pieces.

"You shoot again, you'll regret it. You just killed his best friend, it's only natural for him to have that kind of reaction. We'll be on our way - without any further problems. Are we clear?"

There's about a minute of silence. Awkward, tense silence, until the archer, whose name is Tero, starts speaking.

"Y'know, for a moment, I thought I was having a bit of a revelation. I was like, 'I'm actually letting people live, for once. Am I a good person now, or what?' and then this asshole was like, 'you spared most of us instead of killing us all so Imma kill you!' so now I'm gonna kill ya."

"Did you not understand any of what I said? _If you shoot. You'll regret it. And it'll be the worst decision you'll ever make, and it may very well be your last._ "

 _Why am I being so over-confident?_ I think. _Like, I don't even know if I can take this guy, but this just feels like a natural reaction. Like this has been my attitude towards things for years._

_Interesting._

"Kirito, just run!" July yells out.

"Nah," I reply to her. "This'll be easy."

Tero, the archer, shoots another arrow and I slice it in half; I try to rush Klein back to my guild, but instead, he chooses to fight alongside me. We make our way towards him, and he pulls out a dagger, as his fellow guild mates message for backup. Tero tries to stab me, but I duck under his swing and trip him; before he tries to stand back up Gabe appears out of nowhere, and throws the last of the cripple potion on Tero. Lonius and July arrive on the scene as well.

"July, keep your bow pointed at this asshole, alright?" I request of her. She nods.

"Hey, you two!" I shout at the two of Tero's guildmates messaging for help. They look up at me in panic.

"If you don't want him dead you'd better cancel your messages."

"We've already sent them," one of them says.

"Then tell them it was a false alarm."

"O-on it."

I look back at Klein, who's still processing his friend's death. His sad expression suddenly changes into a furious expression, and he grabs Tero's dagger lying on the ground and stabs Tero in the forehead; he instantly dies, and disappears.

"K-klein… what the hell? Do you know what you just did?"

"I don't care. You don't understand."

"I don't care if you think I don't understand, and frankly I don't care if _I_ think I understand! Now we're all dead!"

He realizes what he's just done after his blind rage ends, and closes his eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't save our asses. Get up."

I'm angry, and worried, at the same time. The two other guildmates of the now deceased Tero and furiously typing on their virtual keyboards, probably telling their guild to come back. I turn back, and yell, "RUN!" and we all sprint for the Alexandria exit. Three players teleport there just as we approach the arch, and we come to an abrupt stop, and start running in the other direction. They all begin chasing us, further and further into Alexandria.

**. . .**

_It's been two hours since we teleported to Alexandria and we've already screwed up big time._

We're hiding in a shop with a convenient room hidden to the public eye; Gabe said he had found some kind of invisibility potion that hides doors. I haven't messaged Mell or Laker yet, and honestly I'm kind of scared to, especially on the former.

But I decide to anyways. I form a group chat with Mell and Laker and send a message.

_-Group Chat_

_-_ Kirito adds Mell and Laker to the group.

 _-Kirito:_ guys

 _-Laker:_ whats going on

 _-Kirito:_ we're in kind of a bind

 _-Mell:_ huh? why did you add me to this stupid thing?

 _-Kirito:_ to put it bluntly we're being hunted by one of the major alexandrian guilds because klein killed one of their members out of rage when said member shot sko in the chest and killed him

 _-Mell:_ can you stop doing this i know you think its funny to make me worried but its really -annoying

 _-Laker:_ haha

 _-Kirito:_ no im being serious

 _-Kirito:_ i'm not lying, we're hiding in a restaurant right now

 _-Kirito:_ look ill even add july to the chat

-Kirito adds July to the group.

"July, tell them what's going on," I tell her from across the dimly lit room.

 _-July:_ yes we are being hunted and kleins friend died

 _-Laker:_ hey july hows life

 _-July:_ oh hey laker :D um its pretty good, hbu?

- _Laker:_ oh, yeah, it's fine, im just chillin

 _-July:_ being a stupid idiot as well, I presume?

 _-Laker:_ u know it

 _-Mell:_ CAN YOU GUYS PLEASE STOP THAT

 _-Kirito:_ ^

-xGabrielx adds himself to the group.

 _-Kirito:_ what

 _-July:_ what

 _-Laker:_ what

 _-Mell:_ KIRITO ARE YOU REALLY BEING HUNTED I SWEAR IF YOU'RE LYING ILL KILL YOU

 _-xGabrielx:_ what

 _-Kirito:_ how did you add yourself

 _-xGabrielx:_ magic

 _-Mell:_ IF YOURE NOT LYING ILL STILL KILL YOU BECAUSE YOU GOT YOURSELF INTO -THAT SHIT

- _Laker:_ so he dead either way

- _Mell:_ yes

 _-xGabrielx:_ if it werent for my invisibility potion we would all be dead

- _Kirito:_ props to Gabe for helpin' us survive

 _-July:_ gabe where do you find all of this stuff

 _-xGabrielx:_ nowhere. i create it out of thin air. i make extremely large quantities out of small ones and form new elements.

 _-xGabrielx:_ lol i explored town at one point and found all of these really cool stores no one has ever visited

 _-Mell:_ But are you guys seriously okay? Can you all make it out of there? Or should we come?

 _-Kirito:_ no were fine

 _-July:_ not really

-xGabrielx renamed the group "lol we're all dead"

-xGabrielx has left the group.

 _-Kirito:_ let's hope we see the light of day come tomorrow. cheers

 _-_ Kirito has left the group.

"Well, do we have a plan?" I ask my guild, and Klein. We're all sitting in a sort-of circle; the lighting is dim, as the only light source is coming from the cracks in the door leading into the shop. We're in some kind of storage room, I think. Weird for a virtual shop to have physical storage, but whatever.

"Kirito, Mell's freaking out in the group chat," July tells me.

"In other news, is grass green?" I jokingly reply. Gabe bursts out laughing.

Klein, still seeming a bit "off," pulls up a map from his menu.

"What's that?" I ask him.

"It's - um… the map of Alexandria, why?"

"Alright. Do you know where we'll be heading?"

"That's why I pulled up the map. But honestly, I think we should just teleport back to Northern Lights so no further damage is caused."

"Can't do that," Gabe interrupts. "Their guild has, apparently, 'declared war' on our two guilds, and we can't teleport away while we're 'in war'."

"Since when is _that_ a feature?" July asks.

"Dunno. But I guess the three main guilds fighting for this city have all declared war on each other so none of them can escape, at least not easily. There's exactly three exits to Alexandria, but we can only teleport to one since we've only been to one. They all control one exit/entrance, but regularly cross each other's boundaries."

"How do you know this?"

"Oh. I added myself to this one group chat. Pretty interesting stuff."

"How do you do that?"

He puts his hands up in a wavy motion and looks at me with this strange smile.

"Magic."

We continue chatting away, unaware of the imminent danger lying all around us. Sooner or later, we'll _have_ to find a way out of here, but _how…_ I don't know.

But we will.

And that much, I know.


	6. Stayin' Alive

_Year 1, Day 3_

_Floor 1_

_Alexandria_

We've been getting along pretty well. Nobody else has died, and we're slowly but surely making our way to the southern exit of Alexandria. We're still being hunted, and have had to hide a few times; other than that, things aren't so bad.

There's July, who seems a bit worried but confident at the same time; Gabe, who seems unaffected but always aware of what's going on; Klein, whose emotions are wack since his friend was murdered but is still managing; Lonius, who hasn't spoken much as usual but seems to be fine, and is always on the lookout; and then, there's me.

"Alright, team. We go down this road," I tell my group, pointing to the right, "and scare the crap out of anyone who wants to mess with us."

"What if _they_ scare the crap out of _us_?" asks July.

A half-smirk appears on my face.

"Well, that's not going to happen."

"You're being awfully cocky, lately, Kirito," Gabe tells me as he passes me by, along with all of my other guild mates.

"I prefer the term confident, but whatever floats your boat."

And so we traverse the city. Sneaking past restaurants filled with players that are supposed to on the lookout for their rival guild, knocking out players that try and take us by surprise and kill us, and slicing arrows out of midair that are shot by cowards hiding on rooftops; yeah, it's not so bad. And at one point we find a large weapons store, and it's the only one we've seen so far. It's surrounded by other shops, apartments, houses, and even a few pizzerias, and is the only one of its kind.

"Let's go there," I tell everybody, pointing towards the building out in the distance. In big, green, bold letters sitting above the double doors on the building are the words, "Weapons Shoppe."

We quickly jog on the concrete pavement and past the gate with a sign saying "Southern Alexandria" before we're eventually standing in front of the large store. I crack open the door to check if anybody that could cause us problems is there, and, fortunately enough, there isn't. Just the shop owner, who isn't an NPC this time.

"Non-NPC shop owner," I say under my breath, looking through the door. "Strange."

"That's not that rare, actually," says Gabe. "I saw them all the time before this city went to hell. People founding their own shops, building from scratch… Some even gave out items for free."

"Interesting."

I open the door, finally, and my entire guild (as well as Klein, who's in our party anyways) enters. The pink-haired female shop owner with the username Lizbeth initially appears frightened by our sudden presence, but after July spots a pink bow and runs towards it, saying, "this is the cutest thing ever!" she calms down and welcomes us all.

"Hello! Are you guys pacted with College Dwellers?"

"Huh?" I ask, a bit confused, until Gabe replies as he looks around at the different swords hanging from the brick walls.

"Isn't that the biggest guild in this city? Said something like that in the newsletter…"

Then, it comes back to me, and I realize we're in the CollegeDwellers part of town, and this is a shop for the actual College Dwellers and their friends.

_Maybe we shouldn't be here…._

_Ah, who cares._

"Uh, no, we're not pacted with CollegeDwellers. We're on our way to Stone Tower but had to take a detour through this city."

"O-oh… Well… That's okay! I was just asking. So, whatchya lookin' for?"

"Well, swords, I guess. Maybe a bow for the girl, and axe for that guy. Got any potions?"

"Well, we've got the potions that are considered weapons. They're in the other room, want me to show you?"

"Show _him_ ," I tell her, pointing to Gabe. He looks over at us.

"What?" Gabe asks.

"Potions," I say.

"You got potions?" he asks Lizbeth.

"In fact, I sure do. Hey, uh…Kirito? Is that how you pronounce it?"

"Yes, and yes?"

"Where'd ya get that cool ring?"

"What rin- oh."

I remember on day one, right before I was teleported to the coliseum for the second time, I had noticed a green ring on my index finger… I haven't questioned it since then.

"I… don't know. Couple of days ago I just kinda noticed it here on my finger… Don't know where it came from, and, actually… This thing is kinda cool! It's like a perfect diamond…"

"Diamonds aren't green, Kirito," Klein tells me from across the shop. He's standing there by the door, waiting for us to get going.

"Hey. You."

"What?" Klein replies.

"Go look for a weapon or something and stop judging me."

"Fine, fine…"

A blue interface suddenly appears in front of me, saying, "Message from 'Mell'." I choose to open it.

_-From: Mell_

_-Mell:_ are you dead  
_-Kirito:_ yes _  
-Mell:_ WAIT SERIOUSLY  
_-Kirito:_ if i were dead would i be able to message you  
_-Mell:_ oh my GOD you scared me  
_-Mell:_ i thought like you were about to die or something  
_-Kirito:_ you're a little bit of a retard  
_-Kirito:_ just a little bit  
_-Mell:_ oh shut the fuck up  
_-Mell:_ so are you really okay? everybody else okay? klein's friend died, can the people who killed him kill you?  
_-Kirito:_ oh my gosh mell yes im fine everybodys fine why do you care so much u dont even know me

There's a long pause.

 _-Mell:_ i dont really care  
_-Mell:_ you just reply the quickest so i ask you  
_-Kirito:_ sounds about right. anyways gtg

"You guys find weapons?" I ask.

"Yeah, and Gabe's blowing all of his cash on whatever crazy potions they have back there," July tells me as she puts her long, blonde hair in a ponytail. "I bought that pink bow and named it Leverdeen."

"Alrighty then. Lizbeth, what's your best sword?"

"It… Probably costs too much. How much gold do you have?"

"Lemme check," I say, as I pull up my menu. "Oops - yeah, I don't have that much at all. I've helped pay for my guild's apartment and bought a sword, so I don't have enough right now."

"You said your guild is going to Stone Tower… Do you plan on somehow obtaining gold in that city? i've heard it's basically the Wall Street of SAO floor one."

"'Wall Street'?"

"Nevermind. It's a place of… Opportunity. Anyway, if you have some more gold by the time you're on your way back I'll give you my best sword… But if you don't pay me back I'll have to tell my guild and they might target you. But you seem like a nice guy, so I'm sure that won't be a problem."

"Heh. 'Nice,'" Klein says. "Yeah, right."

"Shut up, Klein. I'll pay her back. Why are you giving me your best sword, anyways? I mean, if I won't pay you off you'll be set back a lot of gold."

"Don't tell anybody I said this, but this guy in my guild really wants this sword and he goes to my school IRL, and he… Let's just say he does things I'd rather him not do. And I don't want him having this sword. The look on his face when he comes in here, finally having enough gold to buy the sword, and then I'll say, 'sorry! somebody already bought it' and he'll freak out and it'll be amazing. Sorry, rambling. Anyway, here you go," she tells me, handing me a black sword with its scabbard already on it. "It's my best sword I've created so far."

"You _created_ this?" I ask, in awe. It's a freaking great sword created by her on day three.

" _You_ created _this_?"

"Yes! I did! Is there something wrong with that?"

"N-no! Of course not! I'm just surprised, because it's only day three and this beast has already been hand-crafted…"

**. . .**

"Whether you're a mother or whether you're a brother you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive, feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin' and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive…" July sings as we walk down the streets of Alexandria. Nobody's even bothering to try and attack us anymore.

 _We're too good for them,_ I think.

_Either that, or they're planning a mass surprise attack on us._

"What are you singing?" asks Gabe, slowing down to July's position.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' aliiiiiive - oh, sorry. an old 70s song."

Mell hasn't messaged me back after our conversation in the store. She's a weird girl, so I don't know _what's_ going on in her head… Probably better not to question it.

"Klein, how much longer do we have?" I ask him.

Scanning over the map, he replies, "We're a little more than halfway there."

And so we walk, and walk, and walk, and walk… And actually, it starts getting a bit boring after fifteen more minutes of doing the same thing. At least the guys trying to kill us made things interesting.

And that interest is curbed when a shadowy figure appears on one of the many tall rooftops looming out beside us. We all halt once we notice it, and stare up at it as it stares down at us; after a brief moment of silence the unknown player unsheathes its sword and slowly strides across the rooftop, his gaze still fixed on our group.

Abruptly, he hops down from the building and towards our position, revealing his name: _Ulf._ He reaches into his pocket and then hurls some kind of splash potion at us, and we all simultaneously fall to the ground. When I try to reach my arm in the air, I fail, and then realize he just threw a cripple potion on all of us.

Ulf stumbles back to his feet after tumbling two stories down onto us and smirks about his clear advantage.

"You see, people, this is what happens when you get cocky. You don't expect the worst, which is what you're supposed to do in situations like this. That wrong choice, ultimately, is all of your undoings."

He begins rambling on about how we're all stupid and other stuff of that nature when I catch Gabe trying to get my attention. He has a green potion in his hand, and he's mouthing the words "throw this". I'm the closest to Ulf, and he's the farthest, so I guess that makes sense. He rolls it over to me and I clutch it with my left hand and look back up at Ulf, who's still talking. Then, with all of my might, I throw it at him, but it does not even come out of my hand.

 _Damn,_ I think. _This is some strong cripple potion…_

I weakly turn my head back to Gabe, who hasn't changed position. He stares at me for a second before another potion appears in his hand.

"Where did you get that potion, Kir- and you, too! Did you really think you could stop this? I applaud your efforts, but it really is useless. You can't even drink them, let alone throw them. Back to business, now… Who will die first?"

"WAIT!" a feminine voice screeches in the distance. Clearly confused, Ulf turns his head, and spots Lizbeth, running towards us, with a couple of other CollegeDweller members as well.

"Ulf! Don't kill them, they mean no harm!"

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the shop! Is my sword ready? I'll have the gold once I kill these loners."

"I already sold the sword you idiot!"

"To who?"

 _To me,_ I think.

"It doesn't matter now! I'll - I swear I'll make you a new and better one if you just leave them alone."

Ulf looks over us.

"Just this once. If I ever see any of you again, whether it be on a floor 75 boss we're both fighting or in this very spot in the near future, you're all dead, you got it?"

I'm filled with relief before I notice Gabe hop up to his feet, with two different colored potions in his hands. He steps back and takes a defensive position, ready to hurl potions at Ulf. I attempt to stand up, seeing as he can, but to no avail; _still crippled._

"What are you doing? Do you have a death wish?"

"What?" Gabe asks.

"You're all free to go!"

"Oh! We are? Awesome!" he replies before throwing one of the splash potions down at us, thereby un-crippling us.

We all stand up and continue moving. I look back at Lizbeth, and mouth the words "thank you".

**. . .**

The virtual sun is just now being replaced by the virtual moon as we finally find the exit to Alexandria. As we pass through the giant, overarching gate, we all can finally teleport to the south exit of Alexandria, and sooner or later we'll be able to teleport to Stone Tower, where they'll possibly take us to the floor one dungeon and the floor teleport station, and then we'll be all good.

I receive a message from Laker; I open it while I'm walking with my guild, who are all a bit shaken by the Ulf incident and Sko's death but are all still hanging in there.

_-From: Laker_

_-Laker:_ what did you say to mell she locked herself in her room and wont come out  
_-Laker:_ i asked her if it was boy troubles or something stupid like that and sshe opened the door and screamed at me  
_-Laker:_ *she  
_-Kirito:_ i didnt do anything  
_-Kirito:_ last time we talked she asked if i was okay then i asked why she even cares then she said she doesnt care  
_-Laker:_ oh  
_-Laker:_ OH  
_-Laker:_ hold on

There's a few minutes of silence before he messages again.

 _-Laker:_ OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  
_-Kirito:_ what what did she say  
_-Laker:_ dude you dont talk to people much do you  
_-Kirito:_ maybe i do maybe i dont  
_-Laker:_ well im not helping you with this one youll have to figure it out for yourself  
_-Kirito:_ aw what  
_-Laker:_ good luck, you'll need it

"People are so weird," I say to myself. "But they keep things interesting."

_**Kayaba's Point of View** _

_I'm done developing the fake game that will lure more players into SAO, and I've been keeping a devblog about it, posting fake updates and snapshots… Said devblog pulls in about a hundred dedicated users for every post. They're most likely to buy the game once it comes out, and they'll tell their friends, and it will spread like wildfire…_

_And then, I'll have even more players to control. More chaos._

_Chaos… That gives me an idea…_

_Maybe I can mess around with the new players' brains to make them more aggressive. I might not keep it that way for a while, just for a bit so the players with no guilds and the small, weak guilds will perish, and the game will get more competitive. Players will toughen up and realize they can't trust anyone. It won't be like last time where they are all driven to unite and beat the game… Yeah, they'll be so focused on protecting themselves from each other instead of focusing on the real task at hand…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was betaread by the FF.net user ParadoxxFoxx.


End file.
